(September 25, 2023) Muskogee, Oklahoma - The Bucks headed into yesterday's match with Connors State 1-4-0 in region play and find themselves fighting for a berth into the Region 2 Tournament later in October. The final matchup of the first round of region play was against new program Connors State College. 

UARM had worked all week on a system of play to maximise their strengths and hide their weaknesses, but all those plans were thrown out of the window when Ebrima Jobe (Memphis, TN) was caught on the ball in a defensive situation, and Connors ran away to score. The men worked hard to frustrate Connors State and managed to get into the half time break only 1-0 down, but there was a lot of frustration amongst the players because they knew it should be 0-0. 

UARM started the second half in a positive way to get back the goal they gave away, but unfortunately, the defense gave the ball away again close to their goal and were punished as a result. Two mistakes and UARM found themselves 2-0 down. The mistakes were not over for UARM as they allowed Connors State players to dribble through the heart of the team and find the net once again without anyone able to make a tackle. 

Somehow UARM managed to lift their game and produce three 1v1 scoring opportunities with breakaways, and the Connors goalkeeper being the last line of defense. Two of these three chances were taken to get the scoreline to 3-2, and with only seconds to go, the Bucks were presented with yet another golden opportunity to score. A through ball penetrated the Connors back line and Arthur Pereira (Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil) only had the goalkeeper to beat but placed his shot to close to the keeper, and the chance was wasted. The final whistle went and UARM fell to the floor in frustration knowing they had let a good chance to get a win slip through their fingers.   

After the loss, Coach Sherry stated, "I was happy with the effort that most of the team put into the game today and to see their willingness to always try new ways of playing.  The frustration is in the fact that you can plan all week on a system of play to help set you up for a successful result but you can't legislate for mistakes which just off set everything you had worked on because you aer now chasing the game.  We are always learning every week and it certainly seems that this team has to develop a more direct playing style in order to decrease the number of mistakes we are making and provide the team with more entries into the opposition final third."

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